


Justice in a World of Pirates

by per4liebe



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crew as Family, Gen, Justice, Luffy actually wants to be a marine, Major canon divergence, Marine Monkey D. Luffy, World Setup is Slightly Different, marine AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:55:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26222998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/per4liebe/pseuds/per4liebe
Summary: What does justice mean? For Luffy, this is life's greatest question, one that he set out to sea in search of the answer, his own brand of justice in the marines. He saves people in the East Blue while running from his gramps, and moves forward to the Grandline, the place he believes he can find the answer. And, of course, adventure along the way!The story of One Piece if Luffy had been a marine. The story is slightly different to make this more believable for his character, and just for some fun change. Major differences to the plot will increase as the crew gets further in the Grand Line.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	1. Prologue

_Wealth. Fame. Power. Gold Roger, King of the Pirates, attained this and everything else the world had to offer. His final words drove countless souls to the seas._

* * *

The Great Pirate Era. That's what they called this time after Roger's death. The One Piece called for people, and they answered with their flags of skulls and crossbones. It encouraged the worst kinds of people, the ones who were motivated by greed and not afraid to step on others in order to get what they wanted.

The marines, the one force of order on the ocean, tried and failed to stop the rising tide that was moving against them. The powerful cared nothing for them and became pirates, and the weak were left to fend for themselves - or die, as was more often the case. Pirates controlled markets, gained immunity from the world government if they desired it, and were even rulers of countries. They owned this world now. 

On an island in the East Blue, the weakest and most unaffected area of the world, possibly the last area that could be called peaceful, a black-haired boy with a red shirt and sandals jumped onto a small dingy, a straw rucksack on his back. _Watch me, Ace, Sabo!_ He cleared his first obstacle, a giant serpent, with the stretch of his rubber arm, fist colliding with face. 

_I'm going to end this Pirate era!_


	2. Orange Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catch up with Zoro and Nami!

Luffy wondered how he always got himself into the funniest situations.   
Like right now, he was in a cage talking to a clown man and a thief that only steals from pirates. Doesn't get weirder than that! And Zoro was around here somewhere...

 _Shishishi,_ Zoro was a funny guy too _._

He had first set out with the no clue where he was going, and no idea how to get there even if he had one. He didn't know how to cook, patch himself up if he got really hurt, or even how to manage the small dingy he had, simple as it was. So, he needed some crewmates. _I'm going to find some really strong and interesting people to join me!_

The first person he had run into had been a whiny kid named Coby. _Ah well._ Coby wasn't a bad kid, he wanted to be a marine, and even stood up to that cow, pirate captain Alvida. But, well, he was still a coward, and kinda annoying. He idolized the marines too much, believing them to be perfect heroes. Luffy knew it wasn't that simple. Especially after the first marine base they'd visited.

So Luffy didn't really want him to join the crew he was assembling. Besides, it didn't seem like Coby wanted to go with him anyway. _I'm going to stay here and train up to be a strong marine! Just wait Luffy, I'm going to be your rival!_

Well, Luffy didn't know about rivals, but he could respect someone wanting to do things their own way. Coby barely even believed Luffy was a marine in the first place. Ha, the reactions to that revelation after he'd gone and beat Axe-hand Morgan had been hilarious.

Coby 'd be okay though. Luffy left him a letter that would make sure he would be accepted, and that would take care of the aftermath from Morgan.

While they'd been taking Morgan down a few pegs, he'd met Zoro tied up in the base. _Hey, you should join me!_

_And why would I do that?_

_You're the guy who helped that little girl, right?_

_What about it?_

_You shouldn't be tied up here for that, it's not right. Let me get you out of here!_

_Haven't you heard? The ones who get to decide what's right around here are the marines. The justice they follow and all that crap._

_Oh please, Axe guy wouldn't know justice if it hit him in the face._

Zoro had laughed at that one. After Luffy'd gone back into the base and gotten his swords (three of them!) they'd liberated the base together. _So where's your pirate ship?_

_Pirate? Shishishi, I'm not a pirate silly. I'm a marine!_

_Wait, what? Whaaaaaaat! But Luffy, I though you were- How did you get away with - Why didn't you say sooner -_

Both of them had been completely stunned. Like he said, hilarious!

_Damn, I didn't know that I was signing up for the marines when I said I would join you._

_Well, you were already a pirate hunter right? So there's no difference really._

_There's a big difference!_

Yeah! So Zoro was a real funny guy! And so was the girl he'd met, who was going to be their navigator. Who was standing right in front of him. Riiiiight in front of him. Next to a cannon. That was also right in front of him.

"-and you'll blast him away with a flashy Buggy Ball!"

Wait, what?!

* * *

Nami felt bad for these guys. She really did. _Hey, thanks for saving me back there! They were going to kill me if they found out I was stealing from them._

_Stealing! Hang on, you're a thief? Are you the one who stole my bag?!_

_Oi, oi, I only steal from pirates, so relax. Who are you guys anyway?_

_Marines._

_Ahha, just ignore what I said earlier about stealing. Did I say stealing? I really just meant getting some stuff back from them that previously belonged to me._

_Eh, whatever, I need to get my bag back. It has my treasure in it!_

_Treasure?_

_Hey, don't make that face while talking about other people's stuff._

_Relax, relax! I mean it, I only steal from pirates. In fact, let's team up together. I still need something from them, so I'm going back anyway. I'll look for your treasure for you._

_Bag, it's a straw bag! And no way!_

How had it turned out like this? Standing in front of a marine with a cannon, primed to shoot. She hated pirates with a burning passion, but she disliked the marines as well. Where were they when her town had been taken over? In 10 years, no one had ever shown up for them...

Her hand was shaking over the ignition. What was she supposed to do? She didn't want to die. She had to shoot this cannon so that Buggy wouldn't kill her. At the same time though... She disliked marines, but pirates were supposed to be the only ones she actually hurt. Pirates were the only ones she actually hated. And she was being urged to act just like one.

Her grip tightened.

She didn't end up firing the cannon. 

* * *

Zoro couldn't believe life with the marines was so crazy. 

Weren't marines supposed to do boring stuff like paperwork and following procedure? Actually, it was probably just Luffy who got them into crazy situations. Maybe every other marine actually did those other things, and Zoro was just unlucky (lucky?) enough to follow the exception.

They were fighting a guy with a clown nose and a bunch of other circus freaks because they had (maybe) stolen something of Luffy's, they were kind-of-not-really teamed up with a thief who only stole from pirates (he was pretty sure that was still illegal), they made friends with a dog whose treasure was an old store, and Luffy was still in a cage. Which he had carried on his back while running away from said circus freaks. 

So, all in all, just an average day in the East Blue.

Later, after they'd defeated the pirates and sent them flying (again, he was pretty sure that was not what marines were supposed to do), Zoro still couldn't decide if he'd made the best or worst decision in his life when he'd said yes to Luffy in that courtyard. All he knew was that it was probably the most important, life-changing decision he'd ever made. Because like it or not now, he was committed to Luffy, and his dream.

_I'm going to become the greatest swordsman in the world._

_That's perfect! I need people like that... in order to end this pirate era._


	3. Shanks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's flashback time!

Nami did not understand these marines she'd joined up with (temporarily). 

_You are going to pay for slicing through my bag... I'm going to beat you up!_

_What's your problem? It's just a bag! You're lucky my blades didn't go through your heart!_

_This bag... holds MY treasure. Just like that dog over there with his bags of food._

_Waaa? Treasure? Hey, what's inside, gold, silver?!_

_A person like you... could never understand its importance!_

. . . 

What good was a treasure that you couldn't sell for a lot of money? Unless it had practical uses, of course... like this map of the grand line she'd stolen. 

"Hey, I won't pretend I understand, but if that bag's so important to you, I could patch it up for you." Nami offered once they were on the ship.

"Nah, it's not the bag that's important. It's this!"

The boat stilled and the wind stopped as Luffy started to pull something white out of the straw wicker knapsack.

Luffy unfolded and shook out the white garment. As it ruffled in the wind, Nami could see three tear marks on the bottom trim where Buggy had torn through the bag with his knives. Luffy turned it around to look at the tears, and on the back of the coat the word "Justice" was embroidered, large enough to stretch the width of the wearer's shoulders and the length of his back.

"Its... a marine coat," Nami said, shocked.

"Yeah, it's really important to me." Luffy frowned as he fingered the fraying fabric.

"Huh? Can't you just get a new one from a marine base or something?" Zoro finally decided to show an interest. 

"What? No way, its gotta be this one!" He pouted.

"Why's that? You cant wear it until you reach a certain rank, right? Besides, you're not even wearing the rest of the marine outfit." Nami asked.

"I dont care about that kind of stuff, and the lower rank uniforms look dumb," he said and stuck out his tongue. "Nah, this particular coat is important because...someone special gave it to me." He suddenly had a wistful look on his face while he ran his fingers along the lettering of "Justice".

Zoro glanced down at one of his swords. "Ah. I get that."

A long silence reigned over them while the two dumbasses stared off into the distance. Finally Nami gave a exasperated sigh.

"Well alright, alright, bag, coat, whatever, do you want it patched or not?"

"You can do that?" Luffy suddenly lit up.

"Yeah, it won't be perfect or anything, but I can close the holes at least so it doesn't get worse."

"Yeah!" He cheered.

"And while I'm doing that maybe you can tell us about that special person."

Not like there was anything else to do on the open ocean right now. Besides, now she was genuinely curious about what kind of person Luffy of all people would find special.

"Ok! Sounds good! Shanks is a really cool person after all. I've got some great stories about him..."

* * *

_Luffy stood in front of the group of Marines that had come to drink at Makino's bar. He held a knife in his hands._

_"I'm tough!" He shouted at them. "I'll prove it!"_

_Then he jabbed the blade under his eye._

_"Luffy what the hell!" The marines all stared with their mouths hanging open. It must have been the red-haired one who shouted that, the others were still frozen in shock._

_Luffy grinned. He'd shown them. The cool marines who'd just landed a couple days ago would definitely notice him now, and maybe they'd even take him with them. He could handle pain! Even if it did hurt. He started tearing up._

_"Give me that," the marine grumbled as he snatched the knife out of his hands. He looked at the wound under Luffy's eye and tutted. "Gah, its gonna leave a scar," he said under his breath._

_"Awesome, it'll make me look cool!" He said while sniffling._

_"You dumbass, don't hurt yourself for no good reason!" The red haired marine shouted at him._

_  
_

_After they patched him up, the marines all sat together in the bar, chatting with Makino._

_"You guys are fun!" Luffy suddenly exclaimed out of nowhere. "Nothing like my gramps," he said and made a face._

_"Your gramps?" The red haired pirate, who Makino called Shanks, asked._

_"Yeah, he's a marine too, but he's mean."_

_"Hmmm? Is he the marine patrol stationed out here?"_

_It was Makino who answered. "No, Luffy's grandfather is rarely here, actually. He comes by every now and then to check on him, but, well..."_

_"Ahh," Shanks said, understanding. "A marine's life is very busy, after all."_

_"But you guys come in here all the time and have fun!"_

_"Haha, guess we've been called out, fellas!" The rest of the marines in the bar laughed._

_"I'd wanna be a marine too if I get to do it like you guys! You should take me with you!"_

_"Absolutely not! You're just a kid!"_

_While they fought about Luffy's abilities (or lack thereof), Luffy, in frustration, started eating some weird fruit the marines had with them._

_"Wait, what the hell are you eating? Is that our devil fruit? Great blues, this child is nothing but trouble! Spit it out, spit it out!"_

_But it was too late. And now apparently Luffy had rubber powers, and would never be able to swim._

_  
_

_While that chaos was going on, a tall, dangerous looking man entered the bar. He had a scruffy beard, narrowed eyes, and a blade at his side. He was followed by a few men. Luffy watched them walk in for a second, and then, disinterested, immediately went back to arguing with Shanks. He wasn't going to be stuck on land forever because of a stupid fruit, right? He wanted to go out and have adventures._

_"What do you mean there's no beer here? This is a bar, ain't it!"_

_Luffy turned to see that the man who'd just walked in was now shouting at Makino. He puffed up in anger. How dare that guy! Makino was nice, he shouldn't go yelling at her like that! Shanks put an arm around his shoulder, however, and said to the man,_

_"Sorry about that. It was us that drank everything just now. Here, we still have a bottle left, you can have it," and tossed it over with a gentle smile._

_But the man didn't calm down. Instead, he turned towards Shanks' group and said, "Y'all are marines, ain't ya? Ha! Bunch of spineless worms." Then he grinned, and proceeded to smash the bottle over Shank's head._

_Luffy jumped up, prepared to fight or at least shout at them, but then Shanks started laughing. His crew did the same, and the other guys walked out in an angry huff._

_"Ah, Makino, sorry for the mess," he started saying._

_"What is wrong with you guys! They just insulted you, and smashed a bottle over your head! Shouldn't you fight them?" Luffy shouted._

_Shanks scoffed. "Luffy, we can't go beating up every goon that insults us. And I'm not even hurt. The important thing is that everyone is safe," he said._

_"Whatever! You're just a bunch of cowards!"_

_He stormed out, still angry. He didn't understand them. Shanks was strong, wasn't he? Then why wouldn't he fight that guy and teach him a lesson? Marines were supposed to be cool!_

_He noticed that the group of guys was still there, loitering around the well in the center of town._

_"You-you...! " He gritted out in anger. The guys around the fountain were still talking, and they didn't notice him."You all are nothing but thugs!" He finally shouted out._

_"Huh?" The leader of the group finally turned to look at Luffy. "Heh, it's just a brat. What's the matter, kid, did we hurt your feelings?" He pouted in a mock expression of sympathy. "Well, you should know, marines are a useless bunch. They don't even dare to take on a couple of lowly bandits like us!" He laughed and bent down right in front of Luffy. "So your friends in there...did the only thing they could. They ain't worth shit!"_

_The bandit stared right at him as Luffy got red in the face. Then, Luffy pulled out the knife that he'd stolen back from Shanks when he wasn't looking and stabbed the guy in the shoulder._

_"Ah! What the hell!" The bandit fell back in surprise, before his expression darkened. "Why you little..." He got back up to his feet and grabbed Luffy by the hair, lifting him up. Luffy still had the knife, and he tried to swing it again at the bandit, but he was too slow and clumsy. That just made the guy angrier, and he threw Luffy into the ground. One of the henchmen then kicked the knife out of Luffy's hands while he was still lying in pain on his stomach. Or, what should have been pain. Strangely enough, he didn't feel hurt at all. He suddenly realized that being made of rubber, he probably couldn't bruise now._ __

_"Hah! You can't hurt me, I've got a devil power now! I'm made of rubber!" He stuck his tongue out at them._

_"A devil power...?" The guy seemed thoughtful for a second, then walked over to where Luffy was picking himself up. "Well, I'm pretty sure, rubber or no, that this will still work," and proceeded to stomp his foot onto Luffy's neck. "Everyone still needs to breathe after all," he said, and started laughing._

_Luffy's air was being cut off. He tried to pry the foot off of him, but his fingers just weakly dug into the bandit's shoe. He started panicking, trying to kick something or squirm away, but the foot just increased its pressure on his neck. He couldn't breathe. His vision started getting spotty, and his fingers lost their grip._

_Just before he started to close his eyes, he saw something step out in front of him, blocking the well and the other goons from his line of sight. It was a white cape, rippling in the wind, with the words "Justice" on the back._

_Then he heard a gunshot, and he could breathe again. He gasped and shuddered for a few moments, gripping the ground and coughing, before he noticed what was going on around him._

_"You can insult me, and even hurt me, if you want. But the moment you hurt a friend, you'll have to pay... **my** **justice**." With that, a sword was drawn, and seconds later, all of the bandits in front of him were on the ground, no longer obscured by the large white coat. The word "Justice" hung over the bodies. Luffy was awestruck._

_"Shanks...."_

_He was so busy watching the scene in front of him that he unfortunately didn't notice what happened to the leader that was standing on his neck a moment ago. Unfortunate, because said bandit was getting back up from his gunshot wound, which had only narrowly grazed him. The shooter was right now moving to help Luffy, but had gotten distracted by Shanks' display. In that moment, the bandit took his chance._

_Luffy felt hands grabbing him, and then he was being carried away from the marines._

_"Ahh!" He screamed and started struggling._

_"Cut that out, you little brat! Boat, I need a boat..." He muttered while they traveled towards the shore. It only took a few minutes for the bandit to find an unmaned dingy and jump aboard._

_"IYou know, I've heard devil fruit users can't swim," he said, hanging Luffy over the side of the boat. "That marine is going to regret the day he decided to cross me, and you too!"_

_At that moment, a giant shadow fell over the dingy. Luffy sat in horror as he watched a sea monster rise up out of the sea, baring its fangs at them. The bandit, too, noticed something was wrong, but too late. He barely had time to turn around before the monster reached in to swallow them. Luffy closed his eyes in fear._

_  
_

_He was still clenching his eyes closed and trembling when he heard,_

_"Hey, Luffy, you can open your eyes now." His eyes shot open at that, and he looked up._

_"Shanks!" He squeked out. He was carrying Luffy in one arm, and treading water. The boat, bandit, and sea monster were completely gone._

_"Jeez, you don't have to be scared anymore, you're safe. Here," he said, and started taking off his coat. He wrapped Luffy in it, so much larger than him that it could wrap around his whole body, and then swum to shore. Luffy clenched onto his neck with one hand and the coat with the other, and cradled in between them, he started to calm down._

_When they reached the village, everyone cheered at their return. Makino especially had been worried, and she started to fuss over them. He brushed off her concern and tuned out of the conversation. When Shanks started talking about leaving, however, he jumped in shock._

_"You're leaving already?"_

_"Yeah, I'm not actually stationed here you know. I have to go back, into the grand line."_

_"Then...here," Luffy said, and started taking off the coat that was still wrapped around his shoulders. Shanks stopped him._

_"No, no, that's okay. Actually, why don't you keep that? You can give it back to me... when you figure out what it is that's **your** justice." He knelt down pulled the coat back over Luffy's too-small shoulders, and smiled. Luffy suddenly felt the enormity of the fabric hanging on him, swallowing his small frame. It was too big. The word "Justice trailed behind him on the ground. _

_"I'll become a great marine, and then I'll come and find you. I promise," He said, and started crying. Shanks stood up and walked towards his ship, not turning around._

_  
_

"I promise," Luffy repeated, holding the sleeve of the white coat that Nami was still working on. Zoro was still sitting on the ground away from them, casually leaning up against the side of the boat. Both of them were completely silent.

"So, have you figured it out yet? Your justice?" Zoro suddenly asked.

"Nope!" Luffy said with a grin. "That's why I'm going to gather some mates and set out for the grand line. There's got to be answers there, out of anywhere else in the world."

"Why's that?" Nami asked, nonchelantly pulling a needle through the coat. 

"Well, it's got way more excitement, danger, and adventure there!" Nami groaned at the answer. "Besides, marine headquarters is there, and so is the One Piece. Everything important on both sides is there. I'll definitely be able to find something."

"Hm, that's true. The grand line is an incredible place," Nami conceded. 

"Mihawk is there too." Zoro added.

"Who?" Luffy asked.

"The current greatest swordsman in the world."

"Oh, so you need to go there too then."

"Yeah."

They turned to look at Nami.

"Well, I want to go there too obviously. I mean think of all the great treasure that's there! That's why I got this," she said, pulling out the map she stole from Buggy.

"Hey wait, is that - ?"

"That's a map of the grand line!"

"Yep!"

"Woohoo! Let's go, full speed ahead," Luffy shouted.

"No! We don't even have a proper ship!" Nami shouted back.

They continued to bicker well into the evening, when the sewing was finally done. The coat lay whole in Luffy's hands that night, while he fell asleep to the lull of the sea rocking the ship. 

  



End file.
